This journalism empowers people to understand the bigger picture of cybersecurity as it connects to some of the most personal parts of their lives: their job, their education, the evolving digital culture around them, and the technology they use on a day-to-day basis. As part of the Monitor’s overarching commitment to chronicling human progress, we see these very human issues within cybersecurity to be critical and overlooked parts of the conversation.

An exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows hackers to conduct good will research into medical devices, automobiles, and other internet-connected devices without threat of lawsuits from manufacturers.

DEF CON staffers, presenters, and contest winners also walk around with skull-shaped electronic badges that set them apart from other attendees. “Here, the more badges you have, the better you do socially,” Puddin said. “You don’t have to prove yourself by wearing a black T-shirt because you have the badges."

After an unprecedented online assault took down cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs's influential cybersecurity blog, he was able to return to the web because of a new service that protects journalists and activists from online censorship.